GARDEN OF 5,000,000 PLANTS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 125, 4 July 1941, Page 2

GARDEN OF 5,000,000 PLANTS

CENTURY OF EMPIRE ENTERPRISE To-day some 5,000,000 plants are classified and filed in the herbarium of the) world's most famous botanic gardens now celebrating their centenary in the midst of the war. The Royal Botanic Gardens! at Kew, covering 290 acres near Richmond on the Thames, sprang from a small private garden belonging to George the Third's mother which had already sent out expeditions for specimens to help agriculturists in the Empire's early days. One of these was the famous voyage of Captain Bligh who went off to the South Seas in search of the bread-fruit tree. The expedition ended in the mutiny of the crew and Bligh's historic voyage of 3600 miles in an open boat. The aim of the Royal Botanic Gardens, which first opened their gates

to the public on April 12, 1841, was the Empire development of seeds and plants of economic importance. It was Kew, for eixample, which sent out to India cinchona plants grown from cuttings collected in South America for quinine to relieve malaria. To-day the cinchona is grown in plantations owned by the Indian Government and factories cottract its quinine and other alkaloids. A few years after the cinchona venture the introduction of rubber plants was, initiated by the Government of India. Although some of the specimens then secured by Kew from South America were unsuited for plantation production, the rubber industry not only of Southern India but of Malaya and Ceylon has been the direct result of the enterprise then shown by the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew.